Making Memorial Day Memories

This past weekend, Lonnie and I went camping with our church. Except there really weren't that many people, but we got to know the youth pastor and some of the teens better. Also, it was COLD. As in raining and in the 40's in the daytime. We were not expecting it to be that cold and our air mattress had no insulation. That first night as I huddled in one sleeping bag with my husband and placed another one on top of both of us (which sounds more fun then it is), I bemoaned our cold weather fate. My husband, trying to comfort me, said something to the effect that some Memorial days are cold. That is when I lost it.

"No, they aren't! Every Memorial Day, my brother roasts himself for 3 days on a boat and dramatically increases his chance of skin cancer. Every Memorial Day, my dad grills outside in his Hawaiian blue shirt and shorts and we eat outside in the heat and love it."

"I meant, some Memorial Days are cold and wet in Montana."

"I know, I just had to whine."

My husband then continues to be all encouraging and calls me a trooper. Which was the dog's name of one of the families there, but I got the idea.

The next day, we drove back to town and bought some camping foam sheet things that kept us MUCH warmer that night. That is when my husband starts talking about how cold and horrible it was the night before.

"Wait a minute, I thought you were OK, you were all this is great last night."

"Yeah, I wanted you to not feel so bad."

At which point I feel like a real heel. Later that day, a small boy presented us with his snail that he found and was his new pet. Later as we walked by him, we overheard the new pet being instructed, "Gary, get back in your shell!"

Strange Names

OK, here is a game everyone can play. I want to hear about some of the strangest names you have come across in your lifetime and Ima Hogg doesn't count. To start you off, I will name some for you.

Lonnie had a coach in high school, Coach Pruner, which would not have been so bad if his first name had not been Forest. As a teacher, he had a student named Velveta. That's right, the processed fake cheese product. There are parents who named their daughter after Velveta cheese.

And last, but not least, if you wanted to name your child what is pronounced "sha-theed," how would you spell it? I had a patient once named that, but spelled Shithead. I am not joking, I wish I was. Some parents named their child Shithead. It was on my patient list and I really thought someone was playing a joke on me.

So please comment on any crazy names you know of. (This is my dirty trick to see how many people read my blog.)

Coin Deposit

There are two Wells Fargo ATM machines in the town I live in. About 2 months ago, a handwritten sign appeared on one of the machines stating that the machine did not take coin and not to deposit coin in the machine. When the second machine opened last week, it had a similar sign done up in a professional manner.

Which brings me to my next point: you don't put up a sign like that for no reason. It means that someone actually attempted to deposit their penny collection in the ATM!!!!

Now I am sure that it is a sweet purple haired grandma who grew up in the depression and believes in the value of saving. But come on people! Just a small reminder that I am not in the big city anymore. You would never see a sign like that in Dallas.

Half an eyebrow

It sounds bad, but it isn't quite as bad as it sounds.

I have this really great contraption that trims eyebrows. You know, it is the little do-hicky that they sell for about $8 at Wall-Mart or $10 at Bed, Bath and Beyond. I have had it for several years and use it whenever the eyebrows are getting a little bushy. I even used it on my husband the other day, and even he was impressed.

Well, a few days ago, I was primping for a youth group function I went to in order to meet the college students and such. So I pull my trusty trimmer out of the drawer. Without first checking that the attachment was properly attached to the trimmer, and without realizing that the attachment was jammed up and basically useless, I proceeded to trim my eyebrow off. OK, well it is only part of it off and it is the outer part and isn't real noticeable. But I officially an idiot. I mean who shaves off part of eyebrow by accident? On yourself? That's what I thought. So far no one has said anything to me about it, but are they just being nice? Here is to unsymetrical eyebrows.

So Sorry

to take so long to update. The few times I have tried, blogger was down. What's a girl to do? Quick update on my life: I like my job! Can you believe it? On Monday I was working second shift and I was looking forward to going to work. I shall now proceed to do the "I am so happy that I don't hate my job" dance. I actually have time to really take care of my patients, really chart the way I want to and really do a good job! Amazing. I am even developing good working relations with my co-workers. People like me!

Also, Lonnie and I have been asked by the youth pastor at our church to help out with the college students this summer. Yeaaa! We like that age group and it should be fun and good for us! It should be interesting. Crazy times are ahead.

Now for my random observation about the world. Did you know that Costco started in Seattle? The mega store to end all mega stores started in Seattle and flourishes in Seattle? This is the same town that hates Wal-Mart with a passion and the same columnist who devoted an entire column to the evils of Wal-Mart admits that he shops at Costco. Does no one else see the irony in this?

Wal- Mart at least sells things that you really can't get anywhere else, like cheap lawn chairs and a vast assortment of hygiene products, and random crap that you find out you really need when there isn't a Wal-Mart around.

Costco, on the other hand, folks can more easily line without. Lonnie and I recently purchased a membership there and use it most frequently to eat lunch there. But really, do I need 6 bunches of Romaine lettuce? Do I need 18 yogurt's? It would be a great place to shop if I had 6 kids, but I don't (and pray I never do). Just goes to prove, I guess, that people like to save money after all, and they still get to hate Wal-Mart at the same time. But do you really need 5 deodorants?

Seattle (and Ikea too)!

Lonnie had a 5 day weekend this week and we were aching to get out of Kalispell, so we took a little trip to Seattle. I love Seattle. It is similar to Austin except it is on the water and the weather is cooler. I almost felt like I was back in Europe.

Got to meet up with an old friend from nursing school who now has a beautiful little 10 month old boy. She and her husband have a lovely home and seem to enjoy their life in Seattle. We stayed with Saunders who live in a very cool area of town. His window overlooks downtown where you can see the space needle and the port.

We made a trip to Ikea on Sat so that we can now have furniture! We bought this in black and two of these along with several other small items. By the way, there is an Ikea going to open in Roundrock, Texas. Now, without a doubt, Austin is the coolest city ever.

We had dinner on pier 66 at a place called Anthony's, quite good and close to the open market where all sorts of things are sold including fresh cut tulips, fresh fish, fruits and vegetables of all sorts and is right across the street from the first Starbucks. There was a wonderful Italian grocery store that I wish I lived next to. I also now know why Pink Lady apples are named such. In the market they were bright pink, think bubble gum pink. Alas as I am still without a camera, I have no evidence of any of this to show you.

I also had a bit of a insight about myself. As we were driving around looking for Saunder's place we drove by the hole-in-the-wall shops, the purple haired people and the general city buzz. I thought to myself, ahh, back where things are normal. It then occurred to me that people having purple hair is not really normal, but it is the strange that I know and am comfortable with. The people in Kalispell are strange, but a different strange, one that I am not as comfortable with.

On the way back to Kalispell, Mr. M spent more money then he should have on a very nice hotel room where he treated me to roses, wine and fresh fruit. I dressed in a short pleather skirt. We were both happy.

Job Update and Easter

Well, I have worked 2 days at my new job! I am enjoying it so far although I miss my old 8 hour shifts, these are 12 hour shifts. People really seem to care about the patients here, the staff is hard working and people are really nice to me. They put up a sign in the front desk of the floor that said, "Welcome, Deborah Mullet." I have never had such a nice welcome.

The night before I started work, I was laying in bed talking to Mr. M and thinking about all the places I have worked. I came to the conclusion that the last job I had that I liked was my first job working at a maternity store when I was a senior in high school. Now I have worked at 3 retail stores, and 2 hospitals as my past jobs. I am hoping that I will like this job too. I would really like to like what I do or at least find some sort of importance to it besides just paying my discover card off.

A few days ago we received an invite from our pastor to spend Easter with his family. We gladly accepted and I asked if I could bring anything.

Pastor Ron: Well, we are having lasagna, what goes with that?

Me: Ummm, well, my family often has sweet potatoes, but that doesn't really go with lasagna.

Pastor Ron: See my wife is still in Mexico, we usually have a ham, but I can't cook that. But I can cook a frozen lasagna.

Me: (in my head thinking, this is starting to make sense) hmmm, how about a salad?

Pastor Ron: well, someone else is already bringing a salad.

Me: How about French bread?

Pastor Ron: That is a great idea! French bread would be great!

So I am bringing French bread to the Easter dinner. Although not quite as strange as when my friend Shelley and I went to Freebirds for Easter lunch and got a standing ovation from the crew since we were the only people there. We hoped our mother's would not be to horrified that we were having burritos for Easter dinner. Life in college, I miss Freebirds.

UTI round II

Most days I have our car because I drop off Mr. M at the carpool and pick him up. But on Wednesday he needed the car. Of course, about noon, I figured out that I have a UTI again!

So I look up the closest clinic (1.1 miles), call my insurance to see if I can go there and hike to the clinic. Did get some antibiotics and a prescription for the pain reliever. I hiked home, took the old pain reliever (left over from my last UTI) since I couldn't fill it until I had a car, and curled up in a ball waiting for my husband to come home.

Being the wonderful man that he is, he went off to Wall-Mart, got me my medications (along with an Elmo kite), fixed me dinner and sat and watched the first half of "Gone with the Wind," since I have never seen it before.

I am very frustrated by all this infection going on. I am not supposed to get sick very often!!!! On the plus side, I start earning money on Tuesday!

Worms

Obviously I am from Texas because it doesn't rain much there. Texas has its good points, but lots of water isn't one of them. By the way, it is bluebonnet season in Austin and I am missing it! That is how much I love my husband.

Anyway, up here it rains more and when the ground gets wet, these worms come up and appear to die on the sidewalk. I wish I could say that these are small worms, but no, these are HUGE worms! I think one of them was about 18 inches laying there on the sidewalk. (I really wish I had a camera.) My husband clams that they come out of the ground to mate, but I have yet to see them close together. Well, they are close enough together that they make it very difficult to navigate without stepping on them and I don't like worm goo on my shoes! I got these shoes in Europe, little worms! I do not like your goo all over my shoes!

So they are close enough together that I have to walk around tip-toe, but don't seem to be close enough to be making any babies. (If you know better then me about these worm habits, please enlighten me.) And then most of them appear to die on the sidewalk anyway, which makes me wonder how they got this far to begin with.

Employment

I guess I will have to change the part in my profile about thinking about getting a job. I thought about it ( I need the money), applied, had an interview yesterday and accepted a job this morning. Wish me luck as I go in to do all the fun paperwork next week.

Here is the website of the place I will be working at:http://www.nvhosp.org/

French protests

This is the best article I have read so far about the situation in France as a whole and the culture in which these protests are comming from.

http://www.slate.com/id/2138949/

Points of Interest

I thought I would post about some small but odd things from this week of living in Montana.

1)Down the street there is a fire truck for sale. Parked in a parking lot, with a big for sale sign in the window. Just think, are you looking for the next step up from you gas guzzling Hummer? Consider purchasing this shiny red fire truck. Ladders included. Your kids will love it. You will be the coolest mom on the block. Everyone will want to ride with you on carpool days. (This is when I am really missing my lost camera, so I could post a pic of this.)

2) Chocolate eggs are 94 cents a dozen at Wall-Mart. Now think about this. These eggs are packed in a foam crate just like real eggs, processed and put all sort of crap in them. Real eggs are 98 cents a dozen at Wall-Mart. The real egg, as in, straight out of the chicken kind of egg. Something is wrong with the way we eat.

3) There was a men's retreat at my church a few weeks ago. Men were encouraged to bring the following: friends, Bible, pen, notebook, teachable heart, (so far, fairly normal) snowmobile, 4-wheeler, ice fishing equipment, firearms, and ammunition. Later there were pictures of the men doing their manly things including shooting at clay pigeons. The caption on that picture read, "The church that shoots together, stays together".

4) Have you ever met a person and you know the second you meet them that the only reason they met you is to put their ideals on you? Mr. M and I made our acquaintance with a man at church. After shaking my husband's hand, he immediately pulls out pictures of his garden out of his bible and starts talking about gardening and the importance of healthy eating and how his compost pile has apple cores from New Zealand, and banana peels from South America. I (trying my best to embrace that we are all part of the body of Christ) attempt to make pleasant conversation with the fellow although it is getting strange.

Then he asks if we read what he wrote in the newspaper on Friday. We don't get the paper, but I think to myself that perhaps he writes a column on gardening or something. No, turns out that he wrote a letter arguing with what some cardiolgist had said. The thought goes through my head, "Oh my god, he is one of those nuts who writes the paper to make fools of themselves and say there is a big conspiracy."

Next the conversation turns to how the government doesn't research heart disease correctly and everything we have been told is false and he can prove it. (Taking deep breath here, not any old nut, he is turning into a conspiracy theorist).

Since I have worked on a cardiac floor this is a little much for me. Now I am not denying that there is plenty of stuff that docs change their minds about, but most people have heart disease because they are FAT! When my 400 pound patient is wheeled in the door (because they can't walk, they are so FAT), their heart is in bad shape because they are FAT and eat to much fried chicken. I attempt to explain this to the guy in a nice a way as possible, and he tells me that there are conflicting studies all the time and what do I have to say to that?!?!?!?!?!?!?! At this point, I am ready to tear what few strands of hair are left on his head and tell him that he is a complete moron. Of course there are conflicting studies, some are badly done, different people are different, and few are done EXACTLY alike! Read the freaking fine print! AGGGGGGGG!

My darling husband, seeing the look on my face, mumbles something about that we must get going and such and gets me away from the man before I blow my top.

No Words Describe

Read this article first before you read my post, or else you won't know what I am talking about.



Now thank God above that you grew up in the family you did. Because no matter how screwed up they are, you didn't go through that. (Warning: I will be expressing some religious beliefs. There, I warned you.)

Sometimes I am scared that by becoming a nurse I have made myself immune to others suffering. I don't care as much as I used to, don't have the emotional room for others hurts (or perceived hurts). But last night I lay in bed and thought about this girl. For a few min, I thought, "Wait, maybe I could adopt her! We have a spare bedroom, she wouldn't need a babysitter, we would love her." Except for the fact that I have only been married a few months, we have NO money and she and I don't speak the same language.

And then of course they have to ask the question about if she believes in good people in the world. So what if she does or doesn't?!? The world is filled with horrible, evil, shitty people. (pardon my French, but it is true in this case, what has been done to her is obscene.) We are a people on self-destruct and always have been. What is even more horrible and evil is that this is not a once every 20 years kind of incident. Horrible, evil things happen every day to millions of people. Only by God's sheer grace am I not in their shoes.

I don't understand people who think that the world is basically good. Only people who live in the USA, don't read or watch the news, and have never worked in a hospital could say that. The fact is WE SUCK. We are HORRIBLE and we are EVIL. There is evil in the world and it is in every one of us. If you don't know about it in yourself then either you are an idiot, or exist on about 5 brain cells. Look around, I mean really look around you. Evil is not just what we do, it is what we don't do (myself included). Do I treat others around me with the love and respect they deserve for being a fellow human, created in the image of God? No, I don't. And you don't either.

Last night as I was wallowing in how evil the world is, my prayer is for "Lord, come quickly. We need You. Gulsoma needs you."

Where was your gnome born?

Several years ago my roommate Betsy studied abroad in Germany for a summer. When she came back, she had a fascinating tale of the German people's outrage over the Polish made gnomes undercutting the German made gnomes. For an actual newspaper article about this, click here. In summation, most Germans don't care and are buying the cheaper Polish made garden gnome. And many of the old German families who have been making expensive gnomes for decades are going out of business. (Capitalism in Europe, who let that in?) Well, I was browsing through Target the other day and saw a garden gnome sitting on the shelf, looking so cute and peaceful. I thought to my self, "Well, he is a bit pricey, I wonder if he is a German or Polish garden gnome?" I was not plagued by the thought that he could be make in America, not possible. So I picked the little guy up and turned him over to see a very small label: MADE IN CHINA. Not even from the same area of the world! (I wonder if the Chinese factory workers realize what they are making and if they do, do they realize how their labor is helping their fellow man all over the world? Do they find meaning knowing that the workers of the world will unite and overcome the evil factory owners who make them trade their labor for money and worse still, they labor making gnomes?)

But never fear, there is an organization ever ready to help us deal with the moral anguish this places us in. The ultimate answer is not where your gnome was born, but if he is enslaved. In the eternal words of William Wallace: "FREEDOM!"

Oh pleeeeze....

Most people who don't win the Oscar award don't go around saying how much better they are then everyone else and then proceed to whine and moan about it. You lost! Get over it. Heck I don't even remember who won best movie last year, so get over it. There is a good song for this, You can't always get what you want.

Not to mention that there are several problems with her article.

1) The academy can vote for whoever they want. That's the point. And yes, they have voted in some sucky performances before, but "crash" isn't one of them.

2) She accuses the academy of being out of touch with American culture. I agree, but not the way she thinks. She actually believes that "Brokeback Mountain" is what Americans over the entire USA are holding up as their wonderful culture?!? Honey, come visit Montana. These guys wouldn't be caught dead in your movie.

3) She says that "Crash" cheated because they sent out a bunch of DVD's to the voters. No way! You mean they did what every other movie does in trying to win? You can do that, it's legal, and even expected. If you can't shell out a few grand to send your move to the voters, what do you expect? And if you don't have a few grand to shell out, did your movie do well? After all, don't you know what the American people love?

4) The part I take most offense to, calling "Crash" trash. It's not. Now I haven't seen Brokeback Mountain, I will when it comes out on video. I am sure it is a well done movie. I am not arguing any of that. But I have seen "Crash" and it is an excellent movie. I was going to write about it before, this article anyway.

If you haven't seen "Crash" you need to. It isn't a pick me up sort of movie, but I think it really exposes all of us. It really is the human condition. We all have parts of us that suck, and we all have parts of us that don't suck as much, and somehow we all have to live together in this crazy world. If you have ever lived in a city, you will get this movie. The thing that really impressed me about this movie is the fact that they dealt with racism, but didn't make it a simple issue or even a black/white issue. It's an us issue. It's not going away anytime soon, you will probably be mistreated at some point in your life. How is that going to define you?

(Arrg to Sofa Mart III) The Couch Has ARRIVED !!!!!

...but not without drama, of course. Lonnie called on Monday to check on our couch. Note that it is Lonnie calling them, not Sofa Mart calling us.

Sofa Mart: "Oh yes, your couch is in."

Pause in conversation.

Lonnie: "Well, since you deliver to Kalispell on Tuesdays, could you deliver it tomorrow?"

Sofa Mart in a tone of amazement: "You want it tomorrow?"

Lonnie: "We bought the couch in Jan, we have been waiting for it for 6 weeks, yes I want it tomorrow."

Sofa Mart: "Well, .... I will see what I can do."

Does that not inspire me, the customer, with confidence? I mean this is the second couch that they have had to order for us and they are shocked that we would like to be able to sit down in our living room as soon as possible?

On Tuesday (yesterday), I get a phone call that my grandmother is going to have open heart surgery in the AM, stat. So I am upset about my grandmother and then this whole, will I have a couch? Should I fly to Texas? Is there even a plane leaving this state?

6:00 PM, still no couch. We call Sofa-Mart, well they are running late, but they are coming.

7:00 PM, call from the delivery guys. "Well, we are in Polson, it will be 9:00 until we can get there. Do you still want us to come?" Yes, freaking yes. My grandmother doesn't even go to bed at 9:00.

7:15 PM, call from delivery guys. I make Lonnie take it. "Well, this couch won't fit in your door and we are in Polson and ...." They are trying to get out of delivering the couch! They tell Lonnie that the sides don't come off the couch even though we were told that by the sells guy when he was telling us that we could reorder the couch. If the sides don't come off the couch, we would not have reordered it. Lonnie says, "You have come this far, let's try it at least."

9:05 PM, truck arrives with couch. Did you know that if you take the feet off the couch (as my husband had them do) and take the door off (which my husband did) and unscrew the banister in the hall (which my husband had them do), lo and behold, the couch fits in the door! Lonnie found it very interesting that when he was around they could get the couch in the door in less then 10 min. I find it very interesting too. Now everything that Lonnie had them do, is a basic part of being a delivery guy with large items. But they couldn't do it unless the person who isn't supposed to know how to move couches tells them what to do.

End of story: we have a beautiful red couch that is quite comfy, I will never buy any large items from Sofa Mart again, my grandmother is in surgery right now, and I am in Montana at the moment. Don't you just love mediocre endings?

Update on our couch

Well, we called Sofa Mart the other day to check on the whereabouts of our couch. Apparently it is St. Louis. "This is a good thing," according to the saleslady. Lonnie asked the saleslady if someone could call us to keep us updated on the couch. "Sure, no problem." That was a week ago. No one has contacted us. In fact, no one has ever contacted us. We had to call them to get it delivered the first time. I had to call them to make arrangements when the couch would not fit in the door. We had to call them to remind them to talk to their manager. And I will call them again to see if we will ever get our couch.

So we ordered this couch in Jan. It is March and I still don't have a place to sit in my living room. And the company clearly is not remotely concerned.

Does anyone know where I can go to throw a fit. I am a fairly patient person, but the total lack of concern or not attempting to make things right with us is starting to make me upset. That, and I can't have people over, because I have no couch! Arrrg to Sofa Mart!

Sticking it to the man

My dear husband has on overactive sense of justice when it comes to warranties on products he buys. Most of us after buying the Mr. Coffee coffeemaker and then it has a problem 6 months later simply pitch the thing and get a new $17 coffeemaker. Not my husband.

Nope, first he digs out the receipt (which he actually still has), call the company and haggles with them for half an hour, packs the thing up, and pays the money to ship the thing to the warranty center. Two months later, we get a new coffee maker shipped to us. And my husband is so proud of himself for his "free" coffeemaker as he holds it in his arms and proudly proclaims, "that's sticking it to the man!"

Lime-a-way

Wandering the only Target in town with my new friend Janna, she expressed to me her frustration with her shower. Apparently it has rust all over the tub along with mineral deposits. I personally hate that, I feel so icky when taking a shower in a tub of rust. I know it isn't dirt, but some bad memories from staying with my widowed grandfather.

Anyway I lead Janna to the cleaning section and pick up the bright green bottle of lime-a-way. Being the daughter of a woman who knows her cleaning products (although mom, you have got to give scrubbing bubbles a shot, they are great) I know all about lime-a-way and the wonders that it can perform. If you have rust or mineral deposits this is what you need. I give a testimony to Janna about how I cleaned some of my guy friend's apartment so they could get their deposit back in College Station. For those of you who have spent any time in College Station, you know that it is a great town, horrible water. Well, their tub was terrible. I mean bad. I don't think it had really been cleaned in over a year. I spent some time with the tub and the lime-a-way and it looked better then before they moved in.

Janna seemed convinced by my testimonial and bought the green bottle. When Lonnie came home from work yesterday, he said that Janna told him that she had spent all weekend in the shower because she loved how clean it was after using the lime-a-way. So celebrate the small things in life like a clean tub. Here's to lime-a-way!

Revenge with a cell phone

This is great, almost makes me want to get a phone with a camera. But wait, I live in Montana. No one hits on me anymore. (Well, maybe one, but I am married to him).

http://www.hollabacknyc.blogspot.com/